We currently use Accela but are looking at Cloudpermit in the hope it is more user friendly for customers and Building & Planning Staff. Has anyone used Cloudpermit? How well is it working for you? And what do you like or dislike about it?
We've been using it since March of 2024. We've found it to be a mixed bag. We were doing everything on paper before we switched to Cloudpermit, so there are some definite upsides: customers love being able to apply online; staff appreciate not having to input application info into the software from paper copies; staff also like that staff can be assigned reviews and complete them online, and that the software tracks all steps of the application and review process. Our general organizational system is much better now than when we were dealing with paper files. The system is very customizable in a lot of ways, too.
On the other hand, we've had a fair amount of trouble with the system. The main problem is that a lot of our customers do not find the system user-friendly, and that includes lots of tech-savvy people. The design is just not as intuitive as it's intended to be. (For instance, the "application" phase of a permit and the "work & construction" phase are both available once the permit has been issued, but all the documents applicants or staff uploaded, and bills they paid, during the application and review phases stay on the "application" phase side of things, and it's not obvious to lots of people that that is the case or how to get to the "application" phase. Customers will be looking and looking and not able to find their approved drawings and plans or their invoices or receipts, because the system by default takes users to the "work & construction" phase, while all those documents are on the "application" phase.)
We've also had some frustrations with the reviewing and circulating functions. Cloudpermit doesn't have a super robust notification feature for staff users, so we've had to make a habit of notifying staff by email when they have a review to do; Cloudpermit will put the review on the user's dashboard, but it doesn't send them an email notification, so they don't know they have a reason to log into CP.
Another complaint we have is that finding and extending a permit's expiration date is a somewhat convoluted process. Why is there not just an editable "expiration date" field on the permit workspace?
Also, when permits expire, nothing obviously changes in the system to make that event obvious. The customer gets a notification that their permit has expired, but staff has no indication that a permit is expired, unless they go individually track down the expiration date, which again is a convoluted process. I feel like expired permits should be easily identifiable as such. Like their status should change from Permit Issued to Expired, or they should have a big obvious "EXPIRED" label, or something, but nothing like that happens.
The support team at CP has been mostly quite helpful. What user ap1268 said above is true, though; there seems to be a lot of turnover at the company, which can be a real pain.
The most major lesson I've learned since going live with CP is that, if an applicant is having trouble while trying to apply, they need to send staff a message from
within the CP application. Unless they do that, their draft application isn't visible to staff at all; it doesn't become visible until it's submitted. I spent SO MANY hours on the phone with people, trying to blindly talk them through troubleshooting their application without being able to see it myself. Just a couple months ago, I learned from a CP support tech that, if the applicant sends us a message from within their application, we can see their draft app. Life-changing knowledge. The blind troubleshooting was a MAJOR frustration for us and for applicants.
TL;DR:
Cloudpermit is better than doing everything on paper, but it has lots of issues. I would guess there have to be better systems out there. In fact, we're looking into switching to SmartGov, less than two years after going live with CP.
